Cinis Cinerem
by FedoraTheHarbinger
Summary: Jaune Arc finds himself in a new world, torn by nuclear war. One second he was fighting in Vale and then the explosion which took out Beacon and engulfed him in flames of white. He found himself in a situation and in world where the rules have changed.
1. Chapter 1

_**Cinis Cinerem**_

_**Fallout and RWBY Crossover.**_

The sirens blurred throughout Vale - the sounds of screaming people echoed throughout the whole city, followed with the gunshots of weapons and the roars of Grimm. But Jaune wasn't concerned about that, he looked down at his scroll after calling Weiss; he knew that Pyrrha couldn't take Cinder, even with her skills. Cinder was on a whole other level - she orchestrated all this, took the Maiden's powers. How could Pyrrha even compare to her?

Jaune was frustrated, that was clear even to him - and he couldn't get to Beacon fast enough. He needed to do something else…to help people. He needed to help people get to safety - that was all he could do. He just had to hope that Pyrrha would come out victorious over that monster.

He looked around, the streets of Vale was filled with debris and bodies. Jaune winced at the sight but continued on. He just had to push on. He held onto his longsword in his right hand and his shield in the left hand. Corcea Mors will aid him in this time of battle. He ran through the streets, switching through alleyways and trying to avoid any Grimm that would prove to be a difficult challenge.

After what felt like ages of running, he managed to make it to what he would call the market section of Vale. He saw the mall and was going to ignore it but a scream got his attention, so he snapped into action and ran into the mall.

A body was split in half - a male - by a beowolf. He looked at the Grimm as it preyed on a family of three, a mother and her two children.

_The body must be their father. _Jaune thought to himself, he grimaced at the sight. The beowolf was about to attack the family, he had to interrupt it, gets its attention. He searched the area and noticed some rocks from the debris of the building. He jogged over to the debris and placed his sword onto the ground, taking a small stone from the debris. He raised his hand into a throwing position and threw it towards the Beowolf.

It hit.

The beowolf's attention was now on him. Jaune grabbed his sword from the ground and got ready to fight the beowolf. The beowolf charged towards him, jumped up and lunged down towards Jaune, claws ready to engulf and tear him into a new one. Jaune rose his shield and braced.

The impacts of the claws onto the shield pushed Jaune back several feet. Claw marks now present on his shield, it was Jaune's turn to attack. He charged, and sliced his swords up the Beowolf's left shoulder, breaking the armour piece that was present there. However, Jaune didn't take into account that being near a Beowolf was bad news. The Beowolf hit Jaune with its right claw, sending him back and damaging his aura quite a lot. The beast leapt onto Jaune, attempting to bite him. He blocked with his shield, barely, and struggled against the Beowolf's jaws.

'_It's going to break my shield!' _Jaune screamed in his head, he felt his strength leave him every time the Beowolf struggled with him. It was fight or nothing. With a yell, Jaune stuck his sword into the Beowolf's right eye and continued down towards the neck. He sliced towards the left and up, slicing a part of the throat off.

The Beowolf howled in pain and thrashed about, freeing Jaune up. He took this opportunity to move back and then with a hefty grunt, slice towards the Beowolf once more. The Beowolf's head came off and landed with a thud. The rest of the body going limp and slowly turning to ash.

Jaune wiped away some sweat from his forehead, breathing a sigh of relief. He immediately looked at the family and gave a sheepish smile if anything.

"Hey." He said, his smile staying there. He looked at the family, two children both male and female and a mother. His eyes trailed down to the male body, knowing it is the father.

"I'm sorry for your loss." He said again, his voice quite low about it. The unnamed mother gave a thanks, keeping her children next to her. They were scared, and so was she. Jaune couldn't abandon them, and with the emotions they are producing, a Grimm will find them again - and he wasn't going to be there to save them.

"Look, it's dangerous here and I heard that the military set up some safety zones. Come with me and I can get you to safety." Jaune comforted them.

The mother looked up at him with desperate, pleading eyes and nodded, holding both her children's hands as she slowly walked behind Jaune. They made their way through the streets, idle conversation between the mother and Jaune. He wasn't all that interested in knowing about them, he needed to focus on the task at hand. He gave them orders when to cross the streets, when to stay silent and when to move.

They eventually made it to a military outpost, bullheads arriving and leaving, both military and huntsman helping each other out. Jaune and the family entered into the outpost and Jaune waved them behind. He looked at the bullheads leaving and asked around for anyone who could help him get onto one to get to Beacon. He eventually found someone, an Atlesian officer.

"Hey! I need to get onto a bullhead! To get to Beacon!" Jaune yelled over the sound of the bullheads and commotion in the outpost.

"Beacon? Are you crazy?" The officer asked him, surprise and shock on his face. "Beacon is a no fly zone with that damn dragon around! And it's too dangerous!"

"But I need to get up there! Pyr- My friends and others are in danger by staying there. There is someone or-"

"Damn kid! I don't care if your friends are in danger, we are trying to help people down here! Look around you, people are suffering and we can't spare any resources for any suicidal missions." The officer shouted back, anger and annoyance in his tone of voice. He looked back towards some other troops and started to shout orders, completely ignoring Jaune.

With a frustrated sigh, Jaune walked away, going to a wall and sighing. He pinched his nose and thought to himself. He cursed himself for not being stronger, for being weak. The rest of his team and the others were fighting up there and he was here, doing nothing. What could he do?

He heard yelling and gasps within the compound, he looked around in the compound and saw that people were looking at Beacon. He looked towards Beacon and at the CCTS tower, there was a white glow - wait, was the dragon turning to stone!?

He was slack jawed and couldn't turn his head away from the scene, it was just so amazing and terrifying at the same time. The white glow was fading away - whatever it was, it helped them against the Grimm.

As Jaune was going to look away, another flash happened at Beacon. A bigger, orange one...It was an explosion, it was massive. He saw it, and then heard it. All sound seemed to stop, and he looked in awe as the blast engulfed Beacon, and it was heading into Vale.

Jaune acted quickly, the blast was going to cause harm and pain, he knew that. He raised his shield towards the blast, and hid behind it. He scrunched up his eyes and waited for the impact.

It came, and he was not prepared.

At all.

The impact shattered his shield and he was sent back, hitting into the wall. Pain erupted in the back of his head and his spine. He fell onto the ground as the blast engulfed the whole city. Debris was flying with the blast and the buildings rotted away in a matter of seconds.

Then he saw it, a bullhead spinning out of control - heading straight towards him. He couldn't move, he was in too much pain and it felt like he broke something. He saw his life flash towards him as the bullhead, which felt like hours, crashed onto him. A white flash filled his vision and then darkness.

* * *

When Jaune woke, he woke in pain. His vision was all black, but he could feel something heavy on him - he was under some rubble. He tried to move but his legs was restricted by the rubble, the only thing he could move his arms. He moved his arms and placed his hands onto the rubble that buried him. He pushed up with all his force, grunting all the way. The rubble didn't move.

'_Come on! One more time!'_ Jaune thought to himself, a determination flashing through his eyes.

He pushed once more, letting out a yell of strength. The rubble moved up and Jaune pushed it out the way, it fell to his left side and freed up his legs. He got up from it and dusted himself off.

As he looked up, he knew that he certainly was in a different place. The outpost he was in, was no longer around him - there was no one around him, not even bodies. He was on a road instead, the sky was a dark yellow with wind storms flowing in every direction. The road was cracked and looked like it had been rotting for some years now.

As Jaune remembered the events that had occurred, he looked over where Beacon was - or so he thought. Beacon was no longer there, no cliff was present and no sign of it ever existed. He was on a hill, looking down in this new city. All the buildings were destroyed, over head in the distance was a, what Jaune could describe, mushroom cloud.

He knew this wasn't Vale - the buildings indicated that. The city seem so alien to him. As he looked away from the city and the cloud. Around him was abandoned vehicles, which seemed military in design. He looked at one of the trucks among the wreckage, seeing a flag on it - rotting away. It looked like a bear, a brown one with two heads.

'_Odd'_ Jaune thought '_I never came across a flag like this, maybe I should of paid attention in history' _

As Jaune walked and looked around, he noticed that the trucks had scattered crates - with guns scattered around. He picked up what he thought to be an assault rifle. It looked strange as most weapons were usually heavier and bigger in size. Ruby did say something about holding dust cartridges and why the weapons had to be big. He placed the rifle down and noticed some small objects, he picked them up and examined them.

'_A bullet - but it doesn't seem to be a common one.' There is no dust symbols either. _Jaune thought to himself, after a moment of thinking he came to a decision. '_Might as well take it, Ruby and probably most of my team could figure out what this is._'

Jaune placed the bullets into his pocket and continued up the road, away from the cloud. He felt like that cloud was a dangerous one. As he walked up the road, he avoided the dead bodies that lay there. He noticed the strange armour they wore, and different clothing as well. He saw some with the same flag that he saw on the truck and a different one. A bull as their flag.

Jaune was going to examine it, but his body felt suddenly weak. His head was starting to go up in pain and the lightheadedness didn't help. Nausea rose in his stomach and his muscles were in deep pain. He needed to get somewhere so he could take some medicine. '_What a great time to get seriously ill.'_

He had to push on, no matter what. He slowly climbed up the road - the weakness not helping him at all. He had to use his sword to help him, trying to not accidentally stab any bodies just in case they were actually alive.

It took around three minutes to make it up the end of the road, it seemed to end there with a mountain path heading up to the right of him. The rest of the road was covered with rubble.

He took the path leading up the mountain. He got up to the top behind, leaving behind the destroyed city. He walked...and walked.

* * *

Private Joseph Watson was not expecting to do much today, how wrong he was when his squad and the rest of the company was pushed into action. News of several nuclear warheads detonating in the recently new settlement of Hopeville was spread around - cutting off the NCR's second line of supply.

'_That's bad for us' _Joseph idly thought, knowing that the NCR forces can only go through the Long 15, to help reinforce Hoover Dam.

He was currently lined up - behind two other men who were in his squad. Greg Sargent and Michael Kern. They were both privates, the same as him. The squad was recently new - all of them had been enlisted around three months ago and send to the Mojave Outpost.

"Listen up!" One of the higher ups yelled, Ranger Jackson. He was standing on a podium, two other rangers behind him. "Due to an emergency, the brass has sent orders for our troops here at the outpost to be sent out on patrols - heading down to Primm, Nipton and the Long 15. Squad leaders will give further orders!"

His squad was designated Delta, at least for this mission. The Corporal in charge was a middle aged female, Cantrine Smith. They gathered around in a huddle and the Corporal spoke.

"Our objective is to patrol around the western part of Primm - looking out for any hostile or unusual activity and report any valuable information back to Jackson."

The objective seemed pretty simple, Joseph thought. Primm was an independant town, not reliant on the NCR yet. They still haven't annexed the Mojave and Vegas yet. The infrastructure was still being built by the prisoners from the prison. They were scumbags.

After the Corporal gave her orders, it ten minutes for Joseph to get his armor on, put his ammunition on his pouch and grab his service rifle, which wasn't in the best of conditions, and he was just given it.

"You'd think they would've given us better rifles." Joseph grumbled, not directing the conversation to anyone. The barracks was full of people getting into gear, he never saw it so many people getting deployed.

"We are just grunts, once you get into the specializations and rank up, you get better weapons. Our weapons were probably used by some of the guys who died at the Dam. We better treat them with respect." Greg, the bald headed with a rough beard, said. He was quite muscular and was middle aged - odd for someone like him to be a private.

"I suppose so." Joseph replied, closing his locker and locking it with the right combination. Him and Greg walked out from the barracks and went to the east entrance of the Mojave Outpost which led down into the interstate.

Joined by the Corporal and Micheal, the walk was took quite a long time to get to Primm, fifteen minutes was the best time they could make but they made it within twenty. They shot the odd raider and mutant that dare approached the patrol.

The west of Primm didn't really have much to it, desert, desert and more desert. Joseph walked behind Michael - Greg behind Joseph and Cantrine in front of Michael leading the squad. He took deep breaths as he traversed up the hill, the service rifle and all the gear weighing him down..

"Better get that training up." Michael remarked as he looked back down to Joseph.

"Not my fault that I have all this gear."

"Excuses, excuses." Michael grinned, clearly thinking it as a joke.

"Damn it, I ha- Woah! Do you see that up there?" Joseph exclaimed, looking at the Wreckage. The squad got into action and ran up towards the wreckage. "I never seen this before."

"Neither have I." Cantrine responded. "Alright everyone, spread out and let's get searching."

Joseph nodded and took to towards a wrecked bus near the wreckage, he looked for his flashlight and turned it on. The light lit up the dark areas of the bus, Joseph searched through bus - nothing of interest - old clothes, food and so on. As he pointed the light towards the end of the bus, he saw a body. A man with blonde hair and in some strange looking clothes. Next to him was a shield and a sword.

"We got a body here!" Joseph called out, he jumped into the bus and walked up towards the man. The rest of the squad came up to the bus to help out. The Corporal ordered Joseph to take the body out onto the sand.

As the body laid on the sand - the Corporal checked for the vitals while the Privates looked at him.

"Strange clothing." Joseph muttered, looking at the fabric beneath what he assumed was some steel plating.

"He uses melee weapons, a sword and a shield - don't know what make though." Greg said, as he looked at the shield and the sword. "There is a symbol on the shield, a crest shaped into an arc. Perhaps a symbol of a tribe?"

"I never seen a tribe with that symbol, a run away from the Legion perhaps." Cantrine said. "The guy is breathing - Michael, Joseph. Bring the body with you, we are taking it to the outpost. Greg, take the sword and shield."

Both Joseph and Michael groaned, but took the body with them - Michael carrying the lower half and Joseph carrying the upper half."

They took off to the outpost, the sun setting on the Mojave. And there, they would find the answers to this man and who he was.


	2. Chapter 2

**Cinis Cinerem Chapter 2:**

**Fallout and RWBY Crossover**

_**Cinis Cinerem - Ashes to Ashes**_

When Jaune opened his eyes, he was expecting death itself to meet him and give him another chance at life. Unfortunately, he didn't get that luxury. His eyes trailed the ceiling in front of him, a dim light hitting his face from the ceiling fan and the light in the middle of it. The bed that he laid on wasn't that comfortable - the mattress was deflated, dirty and there was a straw pillow that his head was on.

He slowly pushed himself up, the muscles in his legs responding in pain as he manoeuvred his body up. He pushed the straw pillow up to the wall and rested his back onto it. It wasn't that comfortable but it will have to do.

The room that he was in was quite small, he was on the starting bed next to the door, two other beds next to him and three others parallel to the beds on his side. It wasn't that empty as he thought it would be - there was, what he assumed was around two to three doctors, striding around the place speaking to each other and they were operating on other people, who's attire looked like the same in the place that he was in not so long ago.

His head had a dull pain and he rubbed his head trying to get rid of it. The walk seemed so long and he had collapsed after getting to a desert. He felt so sick and ill that his body would not operate anymore. That's how he blacked out - he didn't remember anything about going to a building - a hospital maybe?

_What kind of hospital have beds that stink and are dirty?_ Jaune thought to himself, looking at the stain marks on the bed and the rotting of the bed's legs. After a while, he slowly got up from the bed, his muscles not enjoying the movement and responded with giving him pain. He also needed to get a drink, his throat was dry as the deserts of Vacou. Not that he has ever been there.

Surprisingly enough, the doctors noticed that he was awake but didn't bother to talk or question him. He was expecting to be pushed back onto the bed to rest, and his partner waiting for him outside ready to scold him for doing something wrong. Jaune clenched his eyes at the thought, he still needed to find her and find the rest of his team and his sister team.

Jaune looked up towards one of the doctors, looking at his paperwork, and asked, "Hey, do you know where I am?"

The doctor looked up at him and sighed, muttering something, Jaune didn't quite here. "You are in the medical wing of the Mojave Outpost."

_Mojave Outpost? _Jaune thought, he had never heard of it, it could be just another village. _Outpost seems militaristic though with all the guns near the wounded and they certainly don't look like Atlas Military._ To his knowledge, Vale didn't have any sort of military, it is mostly reliant on mercenary or huntsman.

As Jaune snapped out of his thoughts, he saw the doctor staring at him strangely. They both remained in silence for a minute. A whole minute. Jaune opened his mouth to speak but the doctor beat him first

"Ah, sorry for staring. I'm surprised that you are alive with the amount of radiation in you. It took an hour to flush out and another hour to quarantine the wing."

"Radiation?" Jaune asked. He winced once the doctor gave him a look. Alright, he wasn't the best in the dust sciences. "Is that a special type of dust?" He asked sheepishly.

"Dust? You must be from a tribe." He muttered before speaking out loud. "Radiation is the movement of energy in the form of particles. Your radiation is Gamma, which is quite deadly to the human body. It is a miracle that you survived. There are other types of radiation, such as Alpha and Beta, radiation is all around us."

I never even heard of that Jaune thought, a sense of glumness over him. Sure, he wasn't the best at his studies or social interactions, but he would've known the words, if not the definitions of them!

"That's interesting?" He replied, rubbing his head to get over the knowledge. "How was I exposed to this...Gamma Radiation?"

"The troops that brought you said that you were at wreckage near Hopeville. There was an accident that happened, a massive nuclear explosion." The doctor explained though Jaune had more questions to ask. Where they Atlas Troops? Nuclear Explosion?

"Nuclear Explosion? And the troops, are they Atlas?" Jaune asked, but winced when the doctor gave him the strangest of looks as if he was crazy. Eventually, the doctor sighed and started to explain.

Jaune's stomach did not feel good during the explanation.

* * *

After excusing himself to go to a safe spot, such as the toilets which didn't help his nausea in his stomach, he processed the information that was given to him. So much flooded his brain, the troops being called NCR, based on 'Old World Ideals' which is shortly found out that it was based after the Great War, not his Great War but another which caused the world to destroy itself.

Jaune idly wondered to himself, was he sent forward in time? Did the Great War happen with that explosion at Beacon? Then how did he survive that? The doctor also called it Hopeville and not Beacon, and the troop's armour are not Atlas or any other kind.

Remnant has gone and destroyed itself with, what I assume is, superweapons? What was all that talk about protecting against the Grimm! What the hell did I fight for if the Kingdoms just fought over each other once again.

Jaune's fist curled up, and a moment later, he felt it impacting the wall - not cracking it as he liked and causing the pain because he forgot to push his aura into the hand. He breathed a sigh of anger and tears swelled in his eyes. So much as happened in so little time.

Another question popped up in his mind. '_Will I ever see my friends again? Are they dead?'_ Jaune's anger slowly faded away as a bile-filled his throat. He seemed to struggle to breathe as he thought over the prospect of his team and his friend dying.

_No! They must be alive! _He told himself, yelled at himself. He will not give up that prospect of them dying so easily. If he could survive, so can they!

Several minutes past and Jaune finally composed himself. He exited out the _bathroom_ if one could call it that and back into the ward. He saw the doctor talking to one of the NCR's soldiers before approaching them.

"-know anything. Ah, here he is." The doctor said, his eyes trailing to Jaune and back to the soldier. "Sorry, I didn't get your name…" The doctor said, after a moment, Jaune realised it was to him.

"Jaune Arc." He resisted doing his catchphrase, he learnt over his time at Beacon to not say things that his mother and father advised for him to do. Their advice did land him into trouble often.

"Right, and this is Private Watson." The doctor indicated to the soldier.

"Just call me Joseph, sorry to make this short. I've been told to collect you by my squad leader, something about you not being able to pay and the gear you have not being much of value around these parts." Joseph explained, cutting to the point. The doctor huffed, annoyed by the prospect of being butted in. He excused himself while he left Jaune and Joseph to talk to each other.

"Yeah, I didn't come out with much. My lien is not much." Jaune sheepishly said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Ah, yeah, we don't use this 'lien' around here," Joseph said, "We either use bottle caps, from Nuka-Cola drinks or NCR dollars."

Jaune mentally slapped himself, right he was in a _different _world now. He needed to learn more around him before speaking about things that may not be used anymore. Aura must still be a thing though right? Of course, it should be.

"Anyways, I came here for you because of one of the higher-ups suggested you to help them as a payment for saving you. Not that I agree with it." Joseph said, continuing before Jaune could respond. "You should come with me, you can collect your gear and get a report on the situation around here."

Jaune nodded and followed Joseph out of the ward.

As they exited out of the ward, Jaune felt a wave of heat fall over him. Yup, definitely Vacou's heat. _How did I get here then? _He thought idly as he walked next to Joseph. He looked around the outpost, it was quite big as trucks, the same what he saw when he woke up, drove past the border gates with supplies. Troops roamed around with rifles, they didn't look all that impressive and it seems like the outpost was roaming with people.

"Joseph right? So, you are part of the NCR's army, what is it like?" Jaune asked him, wiping some sweat from his forehead. His hoodie not doing much help for the heat.

"This is my first tour, I enlisted three months ago and was placed into a squad which led me here. We are part of the Mojave division and I've been placed on the reserves in the outpost." He replied, leading him across the road and towards what he assumed was the troop's barracks.

"What about you? Aren't you from a tribe?" Joseph asked him, it seemed to be one question Joseph, one question Jaune.

"I'm not really from a tribe, I'm from a small settlement nearby Hopeville," Jaune said, he already knew that people gave him strange reactions to what he said and he heard about this Hopeville, so it was reasonable to say he was near there. "It was a peaceful settlement, nothing bothered us that much as we had some good protection around it. I and my family lived there our whole lives."

"Guess I won that bet." Joseph chuckled and shook his head. "I suppose since the NCR moved into the Mojave and the surrounding area, they would be under NCR authority." Jaune nodded but didn't respond. His main plan was to settle in where-ever he was and find out what happened to his friends.

Both Joseph and Jaune walked into the barracks, it had a small bar when entering and the rest of the troop's equipment were placed in a bigger room next to the bar. There weren't many people in the bar, most were troops but somewhere most likely traders or people who helped around in the Outpost.

Jaune was led into the bigger room and towards a small group of people. He didn't know who they were but noticed that the female among the male group was the leader. Joseph waved towards them and indicated towards Jaune.

"Corporal, this is the guy we picked up," Joseph said, the supposedly Corporal stood up and walked towards Jaune - she was going to speak before being interrupted.

"The rat we picked up from the trash? Why is he here with us?" One of the male members asked from the group, an old man at that. Jaune face turned into one of confusion and mild conflict. He did remind him of Cardin, back before he stopped with his bullying. Bullying in a combat school was way different from other schools. Bullying could be stopped if you are strong enough, or it could be bad if you were weak. The ideal of strength above all.

Cantrine gave a stern look towards the older man, a frown present on her face before speaking. "And I will tell you why now, how about you don't interrupt me, Greg?." She turned back to Jaune with a scoff and started to speak. "You probably heard from Joseph that you will help us out as payment to us for saving your ass. Usually, the NCR doesn't hire mercenaries of the kind but we are under-equipped and under-manned and this is more of a debt payment rather than keep."

Jaune nodded taking the information in, he had to give it to them - he wouldn't be alive because of this 'radiation' that he had but he needed to ask something. "That makes sense, but what if I want to leave?" he asked with slight curiosity.

"As you are unofficially hired by the NCR to help us out, you technically could leave officially, though I don't think that would be wise, unofficially you are going to help us out for several months to repay your debt to us because you couldn't pay up." She responded, Jaune felt a slight hostility in the sentence - it's not his fault that he couldn't pay, he had worthless things...speaking about things.

"What about my gear? Will they be given back to me? If not, at least allow me to get Crocea Mors back - that is my sword." Jaune asked, a worry to his tone. He didn't care about most of his gear but the sword was sentimental to him.

"Don't worry." Cantrine chuckled. "Your gear will be given back to you as soon as possible. Now, you will need to get into shape and understand what has been happening."

* * *

Jaune sighed as the heat of the Mojave slowly cooled down as night crept up around them. It had been several hours after being introduced to the whole squad, being told what has happened, the NCR's past and all the other news that has been happening of late.

He knew that he had to become well trained and well prepared for the battles that lay ahead of him, he entered into a new world, a different one and had to adapt to it. He clenched his fist as he looked down - he will find a way back to his home. No matter the cost, and take his revenge on those who wronged him and his team.


End file.
